Khorasan Group leader killed in Syria air strike, says Pentagon

It came as Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his group’s presence in Syria was “larger than ever before – qualitatively, quantitatively, and in equipment, because we are in a critical and definitive battle”.

A Syrian child holds a poster with photos of Syrian president Bashar Assad, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, with ArabiShow more

Washington // The leader of a group of Al Qaeda veterans which Washington calls the Khorasan Group has been killed in a coalition air strike in Syria, the Pentagon confirmed on Sunday, proclaiming it another victory against a shadowy outfit it says targets the United States.

Sanafi Al Nasr, a Saudi national, was killed in an air attack in the north-west of the country on Thursday, according to the Pentagon.

“This operation deals a significant blow to the Khorasan Group’s plans to attack the United States and our allies,” the US secretary of defence Ash Carter said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group monitoring the conflict in Syria, reported Al Nasr’s death on Friday, saying he was killed in a strike in Aleppo province.

Al Nasr, also known as Abdul Mohsen Abdullah Ibrahim Al Sharikh, was listed as a “specially designated global terrorist” by the US treasury department last year.

He had been erroneously reported dead in the past.

The Pentagon described Al Nasr as a “long-time jihadist” who funneled money and fighters for Al Qaeda and said he was the fifth senior Khorasan Group leader killed in the last four months.

US strikes in Syria have largely targeted the extremist group ISIL. But Washington has occasionally also gone after what it brands the Khorasan Group, which it says is a cell of senior Al Qaeda veterans charged with planning attacks in the West.

Officials say Khorasan is part of Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch, Al Nusra Front, although experts and activists cast doubt on the distinction between the two groups.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Al Nasr was killed along with two other senior Al Nusra members when an air strike hit their car.

The confirmation of Al Nasr’s death comes as Al Nusra and other rebel groups seeking to overthrow Syrian president Bashar Al Assad are under increasing pressure from a regime offensive in central Syria backed by Russian air strikes and fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah. Activists say hundreds of troops from Iran, Mr Al Assad’s key ally along with Russia, are also involved, but Tehran denies this.

Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that his group’s presence in Syria was “larger than ever before – qualitatively, quantitatively, and in equipment, because we are in a critical and definitive battle”.

The Shiite movement has sent thousands of fighters to Syria’s centre, north, and north-west to back forces loyal to Mr Al Assad, a member of the Alawite sect of Shia Islam, against the mainly Sunni rebels.

Mr Nasrallah was speaking at an event to commemorate leading Hizbollah figure Hassan Hussein Al Hajj, who died on October 10 in fighting in Sahl Al Ghab, a strategic plain in north-west Syria.

Russia said on Sunday that its pilots flew 39 sorties and carried out 60 strikes in the previous 24 hours. The raids were carried out in the provinces of Hama, Latakia, Damascus and Aleppo, where the regime forces opened a new front last week.

Meanwhile, several trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered four besieged Syrian towns and villages as part of a deal agreed last month between rebel and regime forces with UN help, sources said.

Three trucks carrying food and medical aid entered the Shiite towns of Kefraya and Al Foua, under rebel siege in Idlib province in north-west Syria. Simultaneously, three trucks arrived in the towns of Madaya and Zabadani, where insurgents are holed up in a mostly government-held area near the Lebanese border.

The six-month ceasefire took effect on September 24 and ended months of fighting between regime forces and opposition groups in the towns.

Under the agreement, the Red Crescent is to deliver aid to the three areas as well as evacuate thousands of civilians from Fuaa and Kafraya.

Those evacuations would come with safe passage for rebels and their families from Zabadani to north-western Syria.

The evacuations and aid deliveries had been delayed by road closures in Idlib province, which fell largely under rebel control this year.

* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting from Associated Press